Category Frances Woolley
Are Quebec-born NHL coaches more likely to win the cup?
Historically French Canadians have been underrepresented on English Canadian NHL teams, relative to their representation on U.S.-based teams. The underrepresentation of people from Quebec is particularly dramatic behind the bench, in the coaching staff.
Adverse selection and single-blind peer review
The American Economics Association has announced that, as of July 1, 2011, its journals will be moving from double-blind to single-blind peer review. The identity of a paper's author will now be revealed to any potential referees. The Association gives three reasons for its decision: "Easy access to search engines increasingly limits the effectiveness of […]
What do you think of the American Economic Association’s decision to end double-blind peer review?
The American Economic Association's decision to switch from double-blind to single-blind reviewing has attracted much attention, for example: http://crookedtimber.org/2011/06/05/should-the-american-economic-review-drop-double-anonymous-review/ http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/leading-economics-journals-drop-double-blind-peer-review/33462
Literary You-genics
In days of old, literature was subject to strict population controls. As John A Hobson put it back in 1910: "Before the arts of printing and of reading became common, most of the great deeds of man, his finest thoughts, his noblest feelings, perished for lack of enduring record and easy accurate communication…. Almost all that […]
The mathematics generation gap
Here's my theory: Some students struggle with economics because they do not fully understand the mathematical tools economists use. Profs do not know how their students were taught mathematics, what their students know, what their students don't know – and have no idea how to help their students bridge those gaps.
“This new priesthood”
A larger and larger proportion of the general income of the nation is every year expended upon medical treatment; each decade show a quite disproportionate growth of the classes of the population which earn a livelihood by medical services. The grip of the doctor and the chemist grows continually stronger.
Why is there HST on used furniture?
The harmonized sales tax is a value added tax. At each stage of production, the government collects taxes on the value added at that stage. Suppose, for example, a carpenter buys $10,000 worth of wood, makes it into furniture, and sells the furniture for $15,000. At a 12% tax rate, the carpenter pays $1,200 HST […]
Should economists be licensed?
In the US, as in most other OECD countries, unionization rates have been falling for decades. Yet this decline has been counter-balanced by a rise in professional licensing. This picture, taken from Kleiner and Krueger (ht Thomas Lemieux), says it all:
Why it’s hard to profit from northern asparagus
Life explodes in springtime: green grass, flowers, blossoms. Asparagus, strawberries, rhubarb. Fiddleheads. These seasonal crops all thrive in northern climates. So why is it hard to grow them profitably? There are boring, obvious explanations: labour costs, the high Canadian dollar, and so on. This post explores another reason for asparagus unprofitability. Canadian asparagus is ready […]
Are gifted education programs a waste of money?
In my latest Globe and Mail piece, I summarized a study by Sa Bui, Steven G. Craig, and Scott Imberman on the effectiveness of gifted education. The authors look at students in a large urban American school district who were evaluated for gifted programming in grade five. They ask: Who does better on the grade 6 and 7 […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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